It’s funny how the fickled finger of fate decides whom to tickle and how.

As regular readers know, I did not cover Matt Cain’s perfect game last night, and let me say straight away that my colleague Steve Kroner wrote a heck of a game story, which you can read here.

Here’s the simple goofy reason that Steve was there and I wasn’t: Every month, I send my editor a list of days that I need off for the following month. I knew I was flying to Seattle today, so I decided I would ask the editor to have someone cover for me today while I worked Wednesday night. Unfortunately, I don’t keep copy editors on hand at home. Rather than ask for Thursday June 14 off, I asked for Thursday June 13, a date that doesn’t exist this year.

The editor just went by the date, since that’s how it appears on our schedule, so he marked me as off for last night and working today. I called him and said I can’t work today because I’ll be in their air. He said no problem and replaced me. Good guy that he is, the editor did not reschedule me for last night. He just had Steve cover for me so I could get a couple of days off.

Thus, I watched Cain’s perfect game on TV like most everyone else.

A lot of folks have written me condolences for not covering the game, but I’m not upset in the least.

I have been very fortunate in my baseball writing career to have borne witness to many great events. I’ve covered many World Series, including the Giants’ 2010 championshep, All-Star Games, no-hitters, all of Barry Bonds’ great home run moments and much, much more. What a sourpuss I would be if I complained that I was on the sidelines for Cain’s big night.

I am very happy that Steve got the byline. I’ve actually known him or known of him since our Cal days, when he was the public-address announcer and the radio voice of Golden Bear baseball. He’s a great guy. Plus, my editors asked me to write this quick retrospective on Cain’s career, so I got to be involved.

And besides, I’m not quite ready to retire. I might cover a perfect game yet, and with this pitching staff, it could come sooner than later.